Most of the meeting was devoted to a presentation and Q&A by Jill Karofsky, candidate for Dane County Judge. Ms. Karofsky is an attorney with twenty-five years of experience and over 10,000 cases. She is currently director of the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Office of Crime Victim Services. She is a lifelong resident of Dane County and grew up in Middleton. She handed out a piece of literature with background information and a long, impressive list of endorsements. She is especially interested in racial disparity in Dane County courts: setting bail, alternatives to incarceration, and community involvement. She has progressive ideas along the lines of restorative justice.

Stacy Biesel described her activism in her recently past community of Merrill in northern Wisconsin, where she and others formed the Merrill Coalition.

We discussed national “resistance” activity along the lines of Indivisible and Our Wisconsin Revolution. John St. described the origins of such movements in the Bernie Sanders Revolution. Abby suggested that we compile comparison documents of the various organizations like Indivisible, Our Wisconsin Revolution, WGN, and Blue Jean Nation that we might discuss at next Monday’s meeting. The topic should be included on the agenda for our next meeting.

Janet suggested we host a community viewing of the movie, “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.”

We agreed to invite Marilyn Townsend to our March 6th meeting to make a presentation and Q&A. (JohnSki did so on Feb. 7th.)